Cable TV
Supreme Court stays order on entertainment tax by LCOs
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed an order of the Entertainment Department of Delhi Government that entertainment tax should be paid by local cable operators with effect from 1 April 2013.
The division bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha issued notice to multi-system operators and the Delhi Government to file their replies and listed the matter to come up on 1 September 2017.
It was alleged by some associations of local cable operators – All Local Cable Operators Assciation, All Delhi Local Cable Operator Association, Cable Operators Welfare Association and Walled City Cable Operators Association — that they had earlier been paying entertainment tax to the MSOs but this had not been deposited with the Delhi Government.
Meanwhile, some MSOs had approached the Delhi High Court challenging a directive of the Government of 17 December 2012 relating to DAS. In its ex-parte order, the Court on 9 March this year said that MSOs who had subscribers directly linked to them would pay the tax while the LCOs would pay for the subscribers linked to them.
Consequently the Delhi Government had issued notices to the LCOs to deposit the tax from 1 April 2013 onwards.
The LCOs thus alleged that this amounted to double taxation as they had already paid the entertainment tax to some of the MSOs who allegedly did not pay to the Government.
Until 1997, the LCOs had been paying the tax but later this was passed on to MSOs to be paid. Later the Aam Aadmi Party government had doubled the tax from Rs 20 to Rs 40 in 2014.
Cable TV
Hathway Cable appoints Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as CEO
Leadership change comes as cable TV faces shrinking subscriber base and modest earnings pressure
MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has tapped industry veteran Gurjeev Singh Kapoor as chief executive officer, marking a leadership pivot at a time when India’s cable television business is under mounting strain.
Kapoor will take over from Tavinderjit Singh Panesar, who is set to retire in August after a long innings with the company. Panesar, chief executive since 2023, has held multiple leadership roles at Hathway, including his latest stint beginning in 2022.
Kapoor brings more than three decades of experience in media and entertainment. He most recently led distribution at The Walt Disney Company’s Star India business, now part of JioStar. His career spans television distribution and affiliate partnerships, with stints at Sony Pictures Networks India, Discovery Communications and Zee Entertainment.
Panesar, with over three decades in the industry, has worked across strategic planning, distribution and business development in media, broadcasting and manufacturing. His past associations include ESPN Star Sports, Star India, Apollo Tyres and JK Industries.
The transition lands as the cable sector grapples with structural disruption. Traditional operators are losing ground to streaming platforms, while telecom and broadband players tighten the squeeze with bundled offerings.
An EY report estimates India’s pay-TV base could shrink by a further 30 to 40 million households by 2030, taking the total down to 71 to 81 million. The slide follows a loss of nearly 40 million homes between 2018 and 2024, a contraction that has already wiped out more than 37,000 jobs in the local cable operator ecosystem.
Hathway’s numbers reflect the strain. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 93 crore for FY25, down from Rs 99 crore a year earlier. Revenue inched up to Rs 2,040 crore from Rs 1,981 crore. As of December 2025, it had about 4.7 million cable TV subscribers and roughly 1.02 million broadband users.
Kapoor steps in with a familiar brief but a shrinking playbook. In a market where viewers are cutting cords faster than companies can reinvent them, the new chief executive inherits a business fighting to stay plugged in.
